A month after committing to a Letter of Intent, the School District 186 board of education formalized an agreement to abate taxes on property that developers hope to turn into a multi-use sports complex just off MacArthur Boulevard near Interstate 72.

With minimal discussion, the board at its Monday meeting signed off on the deal in a 4-3 vote, losing one member's support since the LOI was agreed to Aug. 15.

The Scheels Sports Park at Legacy Pointe is designed to have full-sized indoor basketball and volleyball courts and synthetic turf multi-purpose fields, which will be under a dome.

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Developers haven't moved dirt on the $65 million project yet, despite assurances that could come by August or September.

The district will get a "preferred rate" on much-needed facility rentals, projected by school officials to be $108,000 for 2,160 hours of use annually.

Developer Steve Luker didn't attend the meeting but was satisfied with the outcome.

"We appreciate the efforts of Superintendent (Jennifer) Gill," Luker said in a text to The State Journal-Register. "We also appreciate the board's decision. Scheels Sports Park at Legacy Pointe will be a great benefit to the district's students and a great addition to the Springfield community."

Buffy Lael-Wolf of Subdistrict 5 admitted she was for creating and pulling together an LOI. She was less enthused with the contract, particularly the length of the proposed abatement.

"When the contract came back with all of the points per part, I was still very uncomfortable with an abatement that lasted 10 years," Lael-Wolf admitted. "I just think right now we're not in a position to abate any potential income that could potentially be a lot of income. We don't know that for sure.

"Everybody's second-guessing and it's kind of a 'Field of Dreams' situation: if we build it, we know they'll come. Hopefully, that's true, but in talking to constituents, there were a lot of concerns."

Micah Miller of Subdistrict 2 remained a "no" vote along with Erica Austin of Subdistrict 6.

Miller, at the board's Aug. 15 meeting, laid out that the district potentially could be losing somewhere between $500,000 and $1 million annually, depending on the assessment of the complex.

Gill said she understood how some of the delays and funding issues weighed on the minds of board members, but, she said, the district's attorney, Dan Hamilton, worked back-and-forth with some board members to make sure they were comfortable with the contract language.

"If it's built and comes to fruition as it's been explained, it will have a huge boom for economic development that is within District 186 and will help us ultimately," Gill said.

"I do feel this has moved further in conversation or in development than any other previous development that has been planned or discussed. I think it's something we need as a community. Our families are traveling every weekend away from Springfield and taking their money away. It's going to bring economy to our town every single weekend."

The abatement is only on the 95-acre parcel on which the sports complex will be built. Gill said the bigger windfall could come from development the complex could spur on Wabash Avenue, MacArthur Boulevard and Dirksen Parkway.

The complex is expected to host 60- to 100-team tournaments on weekends, generating some 250,000 new visitors along with about $30 million in new spending annually, local tourism officials have said.

Contact Steven Spearie: 217-622-1788, sspearie@sj-r.com, twitter.com/@StevenSpearie.